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| By Irene Shen February 10, 2009 Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- China vehicle sales topped the U.S.'s for the first time last month, according to state-run CCTV as economic growth, price cuts and government support tempered declines in demand caused by rising job loses. Auto sales in China totaled 735,000 last month, the broadcaster reported today, a 14.5 percent decline. That compares with a 37 percent plunge to 656,693 in the U.S., the world's largest auto market last year. Chinese vehicle sales have surged fivefold over the past decade as export-fueled economic growth above 10 percent made General Motors Corp. and Volkswagen AG cars affordable to more people. This year, demand has fallen less than in the U.S. as a 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) stimulus package helps the country avoid the worst of the global recession. "This just shows how important China has become to the world's automakers," said Yale Zhang, director of CSM Asia in Shanghai. "Still, it's very unlikely that China will stay ahead for the full year. The U.S. has a much bigger consumer market." U.S. auto sales fell 18 percent last year to 13.2 million. China sales increased 6.7 percent to 9.38 million. Sales may grow 5 percent this year, the slowest pace since 1998, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Link to Article |
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| By Shobhana Chandra
Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Inventories at U.S. wholesalers fell twice as much as forecast in December as businesses tried to keep up with plummeting sales. The 1.4 percent decline in the value of stockpiles followed a revised 0.9 percent decrease in the prior month, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. It was the fourth straight monthly drop, the longest such stretch in almost seven years. Sales fell 3.6 percent after a 7.3 percent decline. Wholesalers had enough goods on hand to last 1.27 months at the current sales pace, the highest level since 2002. Sliding demand in the U.S. and abroad signals a further pullback in production as companies try to work through their stocks of unsold goods at warehouses, worsening the recession. Businesses are reacting to demand, they are trying to manage inventories and prevent excess stockpiling,” said Michelle Meyer, an economist at Barclays Capital Inc., in an interview with Bloomberg Television in New York. It’s representative of just how weak demand has become, how weak sales have become, not just on the consumer side but on the production side. Treasuries rose, pushing yields lower. The benchmark 10-year note yielded 2.92 percent as of 10:04 a.m. in New York, down 6 basis points from yesterday. Stocks were lower. Inventories at wholesalers were forecast to drop 0.7 percent after an initially reported 0.6 percent decrease in November, according to the median prediction of 35 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Estimates ranged from declines of 0.2 percent to 1.5 percent. Link to Article |  |